Council just voted for another tax increase for our future generations.
With the decision to change the designation of the land along Carrot Creek, this council has followed the direction made by so many councils in the past that have made it clear that developers are more important than the need for tax relief for the citizens of our beautiful city.
With this vote, we once again see that light industrial land is best based in Edmonton or Sturgeon County, and not in St. Albert. I've sat on the St. Albert Economic Development Advisory Committee (SAEDAC) for quite a few years and have seen the need to change the direction of industrial growth in St. Albert.
If councils of the past had had the foresight to allow light industrial growth to come into Heritage Lakes instead of the change that was made to residential, we would not have seen as much industrial growth just south of us in Edmonton. Now we are seeing the golf course just south of Anthony Henday Drive changing to a light industrial park. You can imagine that most of the people who will be working there will be living in St. Albert. While they will be paying higher residential taxes to live in St. Albert, the business that they work for will be paying their taxes to Edmonton, which will not help our tax burden at all. At one of our SAEDAC meetings we heard that if we could bring our residential/business tax ratio to 80/20 we would see our residential taxes decrease by 25 per cent.
It is obvious that our administration also has an issue with more industrial growth, as Bryan Alary stated in his recent commentary. The city's studies have shown that we have decades worth of industrial lands available now. This could be true, since we have in the past halted light industrial growth in this city for decades. It is time to change the thinking of our councils and consider industrial growth. I know that it is hard for council to stand up to the developers who want to get as much as they can for their land. Most of them bought the land knowing that it would be used for light industrial, but they also knew the history of councils in St. Albert that cave to developers' needs more than the need for residential tax relief.
Councillor James Burrows seems to see the need; in another article in the Gazette he has proposed light industrial in the northwest corner, where it makes sense.
When the extra land was annexed, we thought it gave council an opportunity to change the direction of industrial growth to get tax relief for our overtaxed residents. Let's hope this council gets the message and continues to strive to have more businesses join us.
Cor de Boon, St. Albert
